New Yorkers Celebrate City's First Japan Day

A Cultural Festival in Central Park

June 3 marked the first "Japan Day @ Central Park" in New York City. The festivities took place from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm in the Park's Rumsey Playfield.

According to Yoroku Adachi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Japan Day, Inc, the goal of the event was "promoting person to person exchange." He said in his Mission Statement that "in recent years, Japan's cultural influence, from games to animation to karaoke, has increasingly grown in stature and popularity here." Japan Day was a way to build this popularity and for the Japanese community to show its appreciation to the city.

The festivities included a variety of tents. The Food Tent featured such items as curry, sushi, Japanese tea and candy. The Electronics Tent had digital photography, video games and robots. An Activity Tent allowed visitors to participate in the fun. It included Yo-Yo Scooping, the tricky art of fishing yo-yos out of a tank of water with a paper string. The trick is to remove the yo-yo before the string breaks. Visitors also had their names written and received instruction in how to write beautiful Japanese Calligraphy. The Activity Tent also included an Origami Workshop. Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper into shapes such as flowers and birds. Instructions in how to play with traditional Japanese toys such as Kendama, Menko, Ohajiki, and Beigoma were also given.

The Japan Day Festival also offered a variety of entertainment performances to its guests including Karate, Japanese Folk Dance, Karaoke, a jazz pianist, Taiko drummer, Japanese Gospel Choir and an Anime Costume Contest.

Unfortunately, the weather did not fully cooperate and rain dampened part of the afternoon. At 5 p.m., however, rain or no rain, some people were still dancing with big smiles on their faces on the way out of the festival.

Japan Day, Inc. hopes to make their festival an on-going annual event.

Source: Japan Day @ Central Park visit and information booklet